Joanne sat in her shiny black BMW, tapping impatiently on the steering wheel.
"What on earth is the hold up?" she exclaimed aloud.
craning her neck upwards to try and see, unsuccessfully, around the large SUV ahead of her. Joanne pressed the call button on her steering wheel and selected her personal assistant's number.
"Hey Rachael... can you do me a favor and call Dominion Services and let them know I'm running extremely behind here.
There seems to some kind of closure here on the Interstate... I've only moved a quarter mile in the last hour, so there is no way I'll be able to make the scheduled meeting at 5. Tell them I'll go straight to my hotel room and I'll see them bright and early at 8 tomorrow morning.....
Thanks Rachael."
Joanne picked up her notes and started glancing over them.
"No need to let this time go to waste."
After another forty minutes of waiting, she decides to give it a rest and tosses her notebook down. Looking up at the sun slowly sagging lower in the sky, she reaches over and unbuckles her seat belt and opens the door and steps up out of her car.
"Seems everyone had the same thought" Joanne chuckled to herself, looking around at quite a few fellow stranded motorists. Just then she noticed a state trooper slowly making his way up the shoulder.
She walked around the back of the car towards the side of the road and waved down the trooper.
"Can I help you ma'am?"
"What is the hold up officer?"
"There was fatal accident involving several semis, a couple cars, and a bus.
The road will closed for several hours."
"Oh that's awful. I had an important meeting to get to, but I've already made other arrangements..but tell me, is there anyway i can get off the highway and take an alternate route?"
"Normally we would advise everyone to stay put, however in this instance we are letting those that want to, turn around and carefully proceed back to the last exit."
"Oh that sounds perfect. Thank you officer."
Joanne returned to the drivers seat, but not before removing her suit jacket.
"Too warm for this." she said aloud as she tossed it into the passengers seat and plopped down into her seat.
She refastened her seat belt after carefully adjusting her tight black skirt. She carefully pulled out onto the shoulder and shuffled her BMW around and slowly made her way along the shoulder with several dozen other cars.
One by one the line of cars got shorter and shorter till finally Joanne had her turn to make her escape. Not really even thinking of anything but getting off of the highway, she never bothered to look to see which way she should go once off the highway. The vast majority of the cars turned right from the ramp, and Joanne could see brake lights, and a lot of them, lined up at the next intersection.
"No way am I going to sit in anymore traffic today!" she exclaimed as she hit the left turn signal and sped off.
Very few cars went this way so Joanne more less had the road to herself.
"I best pull over and figure out where I'm going." she thought to herself, as she pulled over into a seemingly closed gas station and garage. Taking a few minutes to locate herself on Google Maps, Joanne maped out her way toward her destination.
"So it looks like if I go this way, then turn there and then there and go up there and turn that way, I can get back on the Interstate." she said aloud to herself.
Joanne sped off down the narrow two lane road as the sun sank even lower in the sky.
4:45... the clock displayed as she approached her second turn.
Joanne guided her car around the turn as she fumbled with her cell phone, causing her totally miss the sign that read ROAD PERMANENTLY CLOSED IN 5 MILES. The sign itself was easy to miss as it was leaning badly to one side and was partially obscured by foliage.
Joanne sped off down the road. The roadsides were covered with high grass that also appeared to be growing up from the cracks in the pavement. She started to become a bit uneasy with her decision to go this way as there did appear to several ways to go according to Google Maps. She hadn't seen another car in a while.
"I haven't seen a soul in ages.... not a car, not a truck, no one.... since.... that gas station. A car passed me there, but that was it."
Ten minutes later, Joanne found herself at the end of the road...literally. A concrete block with a sign saying ROAD CLOSED BRIDGE OUT, and some orange construction fencing blocked the way
"What the hell!!" she said rather annoyed.
"No road closed sign?" Joanne continued kind of confused.
She shut off her car and got out.
Joanne walked the short distance to the block. her 4" stiletto heels clicking loudly as she went.
She could see a shallow ravine and the remains of bridge supports. By the looks of the undergrowth and weeds growing from the remains of the approaches, the bridge hasn't been there for months, maybe even years.
"This has been like this for a long time.... which would explain the unkept look of the road" she thought to herself
"Well....nothing more to see here. I need to get a move on if I'm going to be to my hotel at a reasonable hour." she exclaimed aloud.
Joanne climbed back behind the wheel.
Looking down, she realized her skirt had kind of bunched up as she slid into place in the seat, causing it to ride up a lot and exposing the dark tops of her suntan stockings.
"Oh my goodness.... that could prove embarrassing if someone were happen upon me here." she giggled as she pulled her skirt back into place. She started the car and gazed around for a place to turn around. The road was even narrower now that nature had started to reclaim it... about a good two feet narrower.
"Hmmmm... where to turn around..." she cooed to herself as she looked to her right, then her left.